Guatemalan Justice Seizes Ex-President Ranches and Bank Account

Guatemala’s former President Otto Perez Molina (C) speaks with the media after a hearing at the Supreme Court of Justice in Guatemala City. | Photo: Reuters

A Guatemalan court has ordered the confiscation of a bank account and six countryside houses belonging to former President Otto Perez Molina, who resigned on Sept. 3 over corruption allegations, said judge Marco Antonio Villeda on Tuesday.

On Sept. 12, Villeda also said six other bank accounts belonging to Molina – representing a value of about US$692,000 – were seized. The latest bank account seizure, which happened last Friday, contained a total of US$183,000.

As for the properties, they were allegedly purchased via the company Vistas Servicios Electronicos, whose legal representative Victor Hugo Hernandez is suspected of acting as Molina’s front man.

Molina resigned shortly after being stripped of his immunity by the Congress; he is currently imprisoned and faces charges of leading a corruption ring called “The Line,” involving embezzlement of the social security institute’s funds.

RELATED: Who Will Succeed Perez Molina as Guatemala’s President?

The country’s Public Ministry also announced on Tuesday that three judges had been arrested over corruption charges, including one that would be directly related to “The Line.”

The judge Marta Sierra de Stalling is accused of being bribed earlier in April in exchange for acquitting various members of “The Line.”

The scandal was disclosed thanks to an independent investigation by the U.N.-backed international commission against impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), a model that has been demanded in the neighboring Honduras despite contrary recommendations of the Organization of the American States.

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